GRTA/GDOT Real-Time Tracking and Choice Data

Project Description:

The primary goals of this project are: 1) to demonstrate the capabilities of smart phone systems to provide more reliable freeway and arterial travel time data than currently provided by VDS spot speed measurements, and 2) to facilitate the monitoring and analysis of real-time HOT corridor and GRTA Express Bus performance data. Georgia Tech researchers will first integrate the existing Commute Warrior and Commute Viewer systems with the Flash-based data interface developed for the HOV-to-HOT monitoring project so that second-by-second travel data collected in the project can be reviewed by researchers. The team will then recruit 80 regular HOT corridor users, including express bus riders, HOT lane users, and drivers who regularly use the general purpose lanes. The team will deploy the Commute Warrior application on the Android Smart Phones of the volunteers to collect second-by-second vehicle activity data as the volunteers use the HOT corridor and major arterials. The team will compare monitored second-by-second corridor traverse travel times with travel time estimates derived from VDS spot speed data. The team will assess the potential benefits of more widespread deployment of the Commute Warrior App throughout the region. The team will also conduct focus groups with participants to gather information regarding the potential impacts of real-time data on their use of HOT lane and express bus services.